We planned a sprint, and by the end of the week, a simple robot personality had been tested with actual customers.

Sprints make an excellent commitment device - when you gather a team, clear the calendar, and schedule customer interviews, you commit to making progress. GV portfolio company Savioke found itself in this same situation: the team had spent months developing a delivery robot for hotels, but felt paralyzed by big questions about the robot’s personality and behavior. When a big problem is looming, it can be tough to dig in. You and Your Team Series Getting More Work Done Here are five of the most important outcomes.

The companies who use sprints (in fields like oncology, robotics, coffee, and dozens more) see consistent results from the process. It’s also about momentum, focus, and confidence. Why do sprints help teams get more done? It’s not just about speed. The sprint day typically lasts from 10 AM to 5 PM, so participants still have plenty of time to see their families and friends, get enough sleep - and, yeah, stay caught up on email. They work in larger organizations too, and they fit into a normal working schedule. These aren’t all-out, late-night, stack-of-pizza-boxes-on-the-conference-table types of affairs that only work for fledgling internet companies though. We’ve seen firsthand, again and again, how they help teams get more done and move faster. It’s also a popular construct in agile project management.Īt GV, we’ve tested the process with more than 100 startups, helping them use sprints to answer big questions, test new business ideas, and solve critical challenges.

The idea is to fast-forward a project, so you can see what the end result might look like and how the market will react. It’s a five-day process that helps teams focus on one big goal and move from idea to prototype to customer research in that short span of time. We spend too much time on email, have too many meetings, then struggle to find the willpower and energy to focus on what’s really important.Īlthough plenty of experts have proposed systems and philosophies for getting more done at work, my writing partner Jake Knapp decided in 2009 to come up with his own solution: the sprint. Most workdays aren’t terribly productive.

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